My Underground house build

Where are some new pics? Do I have to come over there to take some and post them? A lot of people are interested in seeing some progress.

What happened?? No more posts??? grrrr...I was totally getting into this!!! I just bought a piece of land and two conex buildings...wanted to put them underground to "hide" and write my heart away without the disturbances of life...till I found out these heavy duty metal boxes would rust away to nothing...so I stay in the 20 footer while trying to stay cool in the heat...

Hey everyone, I am sorry I have been out of touch for awhile, but I have been busy trying to keep up with life. The House has been on hold for some time now and all I have got done is rubber laid over the decking. Finances have been low and I have been busy with other crap.
I think I am going to be able to start up again and possibly finish this deal. My Mom said she would be willing to finance the rest of the project when she gets back from her cruise in about 2 weeks.
I am wondering if anyone knows any local pros on this sort of construction that I could consult with? I would like someone Like Mike Oehler or someone with the same experiences to possibly come out and sort of help me lay out a game plan to finish this thing with minimum mistakes. I would say I might be in slightly over my head in this, so I believe consulting is needed.
I would like to hire the Amish fellas again and to be able to rent whatever equipment I need to finish this in a timely manner.
I live in Missouri, just N of Rogersville. Please feel free to contact me by email. crazac024@gmail.com.

I am looking to put together a small crew to finish my underground house in Missouri. I would like somebody with experience in this and I feel like it would be about a 3 month project. I have a RV for housing and most tools. I am looking to pay $9 to $18 Dollers an Hr depending on experience.
I am having a hard time finding help in my area. Please Help, I'm ready to Rock and Roll!

Is it just my computer or are the pics not showing up here anymore?

Here are pics of our new progress!

Assembling the bottom wall uprights!

More pics

more pics

setting the bottom wall posts

same post

Pic of my little girl Juniper and a pic of the east fireplace window

Sides

Some more pics of the side wall and my son Rowan and our cat Trashboat.

Some more erecting and my Juny doing some dancing

wall building

pics

more pic

I hadn't looked at this thread for a while. Looks great! I think I could live in there as it is.... (as of the above photos, probably more has happened since) though the rest of the family may have something to say about that. I had been thinking of doing something similar but with more conventional materials (ie some concrete involved) to keep the permit people happy. But what I am seeing here and on Paul's project with speed of build... I may do a small cabin this way instead or first. In fact I may build a few small cabins (100sqft is no permit here) to try out different build styles before making something bigger. The plan is to pack all of our belongings into two 40ft containers and bridge them to make a barn/workshop or maybe a shelter for an RV to live in. Then trail build some small cabins till we decide which style we like... or maybe we can join them once they are up I am not thinking I will need two full size containers for all our stuff so much as wanting the outside size down the road. Using two also means I can "clean up" a lot of stuff here before we sell into one and use the second for moving the rest.

Just now found this thread. Lovin' it! Can hardly wait for the next update . . .

Bravo mate!

I am excited to see others thinking like this..

And glad you didnt let others' negativity slow you down or stop you.. :thumbs:

This gives me some wonderful insight for my future plans. I live here in the north where it is cold 6 months out of the year. My thought is very little heating and cooling.. I also want to make an in-ground greenhouse as part of y house. All natural materials. Cheers and keep on building!

Rebootag

Looking back at the end of the thread, I see its been a while. I hope you found the help you needed and financing. cheers!

This build exemplifies the superiority and greater frugality of round log construction over squared timber better than any I've ever seen. If you scroll through the pages, you'll see big cedar logs that have big branches, loads of taper and often a twisting growth pattern. These logs are very strong. They carried those trees through many years of New England storms. Now, suppose that these same logs had been milled square. A huge percentage of the wood would have ended up in the slab pile. The remaining posts would be far weaker and some would have had to be discarded. Twisted logs in particular make piles of scrap when milled and they give the miller plenty of trouble. The process of milling would have been expensive.

Used in their natural form, these posts can last hundreds of years. The home will be safer and more beautiful than if everything were turned into generic squared lumber. Zack's house will be like no other. He sure has a great bunch of friends. Gentelmen, we salute you.

I'm so curious, do you have photos of how it looks now?

Here are some more pics, these are kind of old

More pics

East wall

More pics

West entrance wall

East entrance and fireplace window walls

The uphill/front

looking in from window and some other pics

larry measuring and beginning the retaining wall

Wall getting bigger

Thats all the pics I have time to post for now. We are currently in the process of building the retaining wall for the Uphill patio. I am going to need a lot more stacking rocks so that is the mission I am on. My neighbor is going to take me to one of our other neighbors land who supposedly has bunches of the worm rock I am looking for. I should start a TV series about it and call it (Rock Hunter)
Thanks for watching and I will try to answer anyones q's.

This is simply amazing.

Much grande, hombre!

Keep up the cool work!

Zac,

The house looks great! You're working at about the same pace/ time-scale as the house I'm building so I know it takes a lot of grit to keep going. It consumes a big part of your life for years. Recently I met a man building a beautiful hand-crafted octagon house using mostly salvaged materials. He had already built a couple other cabins and a carriage house on the property, one of them was a stone structure that took him over five years. He assured me that projects like this do eventually come to completion. So don't get discouraged and please keep sharing your photos. A lot of us are really enjoying them. You may just have motivated me enough to finally share what I've been working on in the "passive solar" forum.

Thanks again!

I am curious about the financial aspect... what are the ballpark figures?

Great build Zac! I have been a fan of Oehler construction for years. Thanks for letting us ride along with you. Cruise easy.